Dec 5 2012
Wednesday News: Low cost battery search is on; Amazon Breakthrough Contest with more categories, richer purses
Introducing an ultra low cost, long lasting battery made of water and blue dye – A company is testing a battery made out of water and Prussian blue dye. Seriously this means if you pee in your jeans, you could power your battery, right? Cleantech News and Analysis
New Scientist TV: Invisible Wi-Fi signals caught on camera – The Oslo School of Architecture & Design created a device that demonstrates the fluctuating wi-fi signals around the city. File under pretty cool New Scientist TV
Amazon Breakthrough Contest Leaves Penguin – Amazon Breakthrough contest used to be run in conjunction with Penguin. Win the contest (as judged by Penguin editors and readers of Amazon) and you won a contract with Penguin. Now, Amazon is publishing the winners. There is one grand prize of $50,000 and a publishing contract with Amazon publishing. The winner will be chosen from the finalists of the new categories: general fiction, mystery/thriller, romance, science fiction/fantasy/horror, and young adult fiction. Each finalist gets a $15,000 advance. Link to contest here.
Starting January 14, authors can enter the contest in one of five categories—general fiction, mystery/thriller, romance, science fiction/fantasy/horror, and young adult fiction—for the chance to win a publishing contract with Amazon Publishing. A finalist will be chosen in each category, and a Grand Prize winner will then be selected by Amazon customers and receive a $50,000 advance. The remaining finalists will also receive a publishing contract with Amazon Publishing, with a $15,000 advance. This year’s ABNA contest is open to unpublished and self-published English-language novels, which can be submitted from January 14, 2013 through January 27, 2013. The five finalists will be announced on May 21, and the Grand Prize winner will be announced during a special ceremony at Amazon headquarters in Seattle in June.
Up to 10,000 eligible entries will be accepted for the ABNA contest this year. The top 400 entries from each category will advance to the second round. Amazon reviewers will then read excerpts of the entries and narrow the pool to 100 titles in each category. In the subsequent round, reviewers from Publishers Weekly will read, review and rate the full manuscripts to find the top five semi-finalists for each category. Amazon Publishing editors will then choose a finalist in each of the five categories. In the final stage of the contest, Amazon.com customers will vote for a Grand Prize winner.
Karma: A simple and honest mobile provider. – This is a cool service. You buy a Karma device and for $14 per GB, you can access 4G speeds in 80 U.S. Cities. What makes Karma unique is that if you share your hotspot with others, you can earn more bandwidth free. Karma
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Dec 05, 2012 @ 08:38:39
I love the idea of Karma! I think I may try it for the holidays…
Dec 05, 2012 @ 20:34:16
“Seriously this means if you pee in your jeans, you could power your battery, right?”
The chemicals in your wee would probably stuff this up :)
Dec 05, 2012 @ 20:57:23
So are we always walking through all of those wi-fi signals? Will this be something we discover years from now that causes cancer? Sigh…How come scientists never ask themselves, “Just because we CAN do this, should we?”
Dec 06, 2012 @ 00:04:18
@Fiona McGier:
“How come scientists never ask themselves, “Just because we CAN do this, should we?” ”
Actually, they do ask themselves this, and if they don’t, the ethics committees overseesing research grants will.
But you don’t have to worry”
“Using a mobile or wi-fi doesn’t cause cancer and poses no damage to health, according to a new study.”
You’re honestly many more times more at risk from solar radiation and carcinogens like tobacco and processed meat, than you are from electromagnetic radiation.
The risk of EMF (electromagnetic fields) has been studied to death, just because of worries of people like yourself. There is no proof whatsoever of any links to cancer or other illnesses from background EMF, and a lot of evidence supporting the contrary position that it does *not* cause illness.